The present invention relates to a flexible expansion pipe coupling.
According to the prior art flexible expansion pipe couplings a recess is formed in a coupling housing, and a packing is pushed into the housing from its rear side to be received by the recess for forming a seal between the packing and a pipe to be connected with the housing.
With this prior art construction, however, since the recess which is adapted to receive and hold the packing is required to have a substantial depth, the housing becomes bulky. Consequently, regardless of the fact that the cross-sectional area of the packing is small, the housing becomes bulky and the number of component parts increases. Moreover, since the packing is small, the follow up characteristic to the deformation of the pipes to be connected is not sufficient. Moreover, the assembling operation of the coupling is complicated and expensive. In addition, at the time of clamping the housing or at the time of flexure of the pipe after clamping, the packing would be damaged by being compressed between the housing and the pipes.